


Stars are Stacked Against You

by Raisintorte



Category: Happyland
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5450756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raisintorte/pseuds/Raisintorte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Half of the character staff comes down with food poisoning and Theo has to fill in for Ian as Prince Valor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars are Stacked Against You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amathela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amathela/gifts).



> Thank you to my two lovely betas for helping as always. :-)

Lucy could not believe her luck. Over half of the Happyland character staff had gotten food poisoning and she was stuck playing Princess Adriana to _Theodore_ Chandler’s Prince Valor. Theodore Chandler. The man who wanted relocate her and her mother across the country to get them further away from his father. That Theodore. And now she had to spend the next 8 hour shift playing his happy, adoring, star-crossed princess. Fantastic. 

Lucy did one last princess perfection check in the mirror before she left to meet Theo for their first park rounds of the day. She put on her best Princess Adriana smile and headed out the dressing room door. And right into Theo, who blocking the whole hallway.

“Sorry, uh, I, uh . . .” Lucy trailed off. She had never known what to say to Theo, even before she realized he knew they were siblings and appeared to want to do nothing more than to get her as far away from him as possible.

“It’s okay. Fine, really.” Theo may have said he was fine but he certainly didn’t look it. He brushed off his costume, as if she had somehow managed to soil it by simply running into him. Lucy quickly mentally ran through her options about how this day could go and decided she didn’t have any choice other than to just roll with it. And really, pretending to be in love with her other half-brother for the afternoon shouldn't be that hard. She had gotten good at faking it with Ian (though sometimes she questioned just how much faking it was going on and how much were her actual feelings, but she was with Will, and Ian was with Harper, and now was _not_ the time to untangle that mess of feelings.) 

“Off we go then. We are on in . . .” Lucy paused to look at the clock, “. . . five minutes.” Lucy reached down and grabbed Theo’s hand without even thinking because that was how she started each shift with Ian but this was Theo and that was weird, so she started to pull it back. He beat her to it by recoiling as if he had been burned. She might have been pulling away as well, but at least she didn’t act like a child. She realized that for all of his talk about “being there for the park”, she was going to have to be the bigger person if they were ever going to get through this day. “Okay, this is not going to go well if you act like I’m something toxic every time I touch you. We have to be in love remember? Weren’t you the one who told me to turn up the romance and that people didn’t want to see awkward?” Lucy got some slight satisfaction in throwing the words he had used about her and Ian back at him.

From the chagrined look on his face, Lucy could tell she had struck a bit of a nerve about his prior statements regarding her and Ian. “Look,” Theo said, “I get how awkward and bad this is for both of us. Me, I paid my dues as a character. I did my turn as Ricky and I am an executive suite guy now, and I certainly don’t want to spend the day walking around the park with my . . .” Theo paused as if he was considering very carefully what to say “. . . whatever you are, but this is Happyland and the park comes first, so here we go.” Theo reached down and grabbed her hand and this time didn’t act like he was going to catch cooties from her as they headed out toward the tunnel exit. 

Lucy let Theo drag her down the hall a small ways but she got a foreboding sense of doom as they got closer to the door and tugged his arm to stop them. Theo turned to face her and gave her a “what now” look. He looked like he was about to talk again but she put her hand up to stop him. “Wait, you were a Ricky? Please tell me you put in at least some time as a Valor?” The expression on Theo’s face told Lucy everything she needed to know before he even opened his mouth. The man had no experience as Prince Charming. Which was actually not that surprising, given his distinct lack of charm. Lucy was pretty sure this day could not get any worse. 

“No. I was not exactly the Valor type. I preferred to earn my stripes in a Ricky suit and not having some fake Princess fawning all over me. But I can wing it. If Ian can do it, I can do it.” Theo was talking a good game, but his face was not exactly backing up his words. 

“Wing it? Wing it? Those people out there are fanatics. One misstep with a story or a cue or a laugh or a song and they will be all over you. You aren’t going to like this but you are going to have to follow my lead. I know it’s impossible for you to give over control, but today has to be that day.” They could do this. They had to do this. Lucy was not going to let Theodore Chandler bring her down. Besides, she had a few rough performances with Ian at the beginning but they had righted that ship quickly. She just had to make it through one day with Theo as her Valor and not crush any children's (or crazy adults’) hopes and dreams and all would be okay. 

“Fine. For this day only, you get to be in charge, but don’t get used to it.” Theo said begrudgingly and started walking toward the door again leaving Lucy no real choice but to follow. 

When they reached the door, Lucy put on her brightest smile and grabbed Theo's hand as they walked out into the sunlight. “Smile for the cameras.” Lucy caught a glimpse of Theo’s face out of the corner of her eye and almost groaned out loud at the wooden and stiff smile Theo had plastered on his face. This was going to be one long day.

The first meet and greet was pretty went pretty well with no major missteps. Only one crying child, no puking, no drippy diapers, and Theo only managed to step on her foot once. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought . . . . “Princess Adriana?” Lucy’s train of thought was interrupted by their character handler’s voice. “Now is the time for Princess Adriana and Prince Valor to kiss.” Lucy mentally noted to find a way to trip the handler later. She was really hoping to make it through an entire day without having to kiss Theo but Adriana and Valor were a love story for the ages and all happily ever afters are sealed with a kiss. Besides, if she could kiss Ian everyday, she could certainly kiss Theo, because really, it couldn’t be that different. They were both Chandlers and her half-brothers. Except she had all sorts of thoughts and feelings about Ian she had never associated with Theo, but that was neither here nor there at the moment. Lucy glanced over at Theo to see if he had heard what their handler had said and given the green expression on his face, he clearly had. 

Lucy leaned over and whispered in his ear “Time to man up, close your eyes, and think of Happyland, and just so you know, I want to do this just as much as you do, which is to say, not at all.” Theo looked like he wanted to respond but instead he leaned over and gave her the most chaste peck imaginable just above her lips. It couldn’t have been more awkward if he tried. But it was over and their handler was smart enough not to say anything and it was time to move on to the dancing and storytelling portion of the morning. 

The first dancing session was not . . . awful. Lucy was pretty sure she only had one broken toe and there had only been one more slightly less awkward kiss and their handler had clearly gotten the message so he was pretty much leaving them alone. Kids were getting their full Happyland experience and that was all that mattered. 

The rest of the morning went by quickly and before Lucy knew it, it was lunch break and she and Theo were sitting in the cafeteria wolfing down food as quickly as they could because two more Valor and Adriana’s had called in sick, so they had no relief shift coming in. 

Lucy was thinking about how the rest of the day was going to go when Theo interrupted her train of thought. “I have to say, that was not at all as bad as I thought it was going to be.” Theo looked surprised and self-satisfied as he spoke. 

Lucy couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes a little. He clearly had no clue how he sounded. “Well, it’s nice to know that spending the day with me has exceeded your seemingly low expectations. I would agree that spending this time together has not been as awful as I thought it was going to be either.” Lucy smirked as she spoke and had to smile when Theo scowled a bit. He certainly wasn’t as good at taking it as he was at giving it, but today, she had just a tiny bit more power than normal so she was going to use it. 

The speaker in the cafeteria crackled and came to life. “Five minute warning for Princess Adriana and Prince Valor, five minute warning.” Theo looked like he had about to say something when the speaker came on but stayed silent after it shut off.

“Well, it sounds like that is our cue to go make children’s dreams come true.” Lucy grabbed her tray and stood up and Theo followed suit.

“Yup. Try not to step on my toes so much during the dance. And smile a bit more, you have to sell it.” Theo was smiling ever so slightly as he spoke so Lucy thought he might have been trying to joke with her, but with Theo it was impossible to tell. She didn’t think she and Theo would ever be friends, but she would settle for something slightly less manipulative and hostile than was their current norm. She grabbed his hand as they worked their way down tunnel and smiled her first genuine smile of the day 

“Let’s do this.” Lucy said, as they stepped out into the flashing cameras for another round of making wishes and dreams come true.


End file.
